Water Cooler – More Trump-Birther Performance Art

I know it is Art Saturday, so bear with me, but I have begun to think that Donald Trump’s embrace of Birtherism might very well be performance art. I mean really, it can’t be about politics. After all if it were he’d be worried that he is throwing his lot in with folks like disgraced Col. Terrance Lakin or Dr. Esq. Orly Taitz, dandelion-haired Queen of the Birthers.

Both of these people have gotten them selves in serious legal hot water pursing the best course of action if one really believes that the President is not really born in the United States, namely the courts. After all, when you are really running for president you do everything you can to distance yourself from the craziest of ideas in your base.

That is not what Trump is doing. I am not sure if it quadrupling down or octupling down at this point but take a look at what he said to Talking Points Memo today, just minutes before going in front of a tea party crowd in Boca Raton:

I just have to make a couple of points about this. The whole “citizenship” thing is BS. No one, not a single person is disputing that President Obama’s mother is a United States citizen. No one ever has. So, no matter what Barack Obama would have been a US citizen, and anyone should know that.

Which brings me to the other point; Trump talks about how he went to a great school, and mentions that he says that to show that it is not just loonies who believe this horse pucky. The problem there is two fold. Orly Tatiz has a D.D.S and J.D. Now admittedly she got her legal degree from a correspondences school, but she did pass and managed to pass the California Bar. Col. Lakin went to medical school and was a practicing flight surgeon for 17 years.

It does not matter how highly educated you are, you can still be prone to believing conspiracy theories if something in the theory motivates you that way. For Mr. Trump, that seems to be keeping his T.V. ratings high, not running for office.
As Trump says this is really popular in the Republican base, but it is does not play very well in the nation as a whole. Especially as among independent voters. There is just no reality in this thing. The birth certificate presented by the President is what anyone would have who is from Hawaii. There is no mystery to this. The notes the certificate of live birth are based on have been reviewed, twice by the Public Health Chief who was appointed by a Republican Governor.

The current Governor knew the Obama’s at the time of Barack’ birth, so there Trumps assertion that there was not anyone around who remembers the birth is BS just like all the other stuff.

So, Mr. Trump, with all due respect for your ability to self promote, and regardless of where you went to school, there is nothing to this. Saying again and again and again may make those who want to believe that there is something illegitimate about this president think so, but it is just not true. This president is legitimate, after all it is not like 5 Supreme Court Justices appointed by Republican Presidents picked him to break a tie, now, that would be lacking in legitimacy. You are, however correct in one thing (after all even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut) Birther is a pejorative term and it has been earned by the same lunacy you are embracing.